Incidents caused by improperly or inaccurately located utility lines have resulted in loss of human life as well as costly damage to infrastructure. In a traditional utility line locating operation (also referred to herein simply as a “locate”), a user moves about an area with a utility locator in hand to try to find the position of one or more buried or hidden utilities (such as buried pipes, wires, or other conductors). These locating operations are important for maintaining infrastructure as well as protecting human life during excavation, drilling, or other construction operations.
As locators have increased in performance, the complexity of associated locating systems, devices, and methods has also increased. In many applications it may be desirable or even necessary for a locator to be used in a self-supported stationary and upright position, thereby allowing a user the freedom to work on other facets of a utility locating operation, such as collecting related data, controlling utility transmitter operation, interacting with a notebook computer, tablet device, smartphone, and the like.
In some applications, a user may need to continually transition between periods of positioning a locator in a stationary self-supported upright orientation and carrying the utility locator device while moving about the locate area. In other applications, such as in a traditional locate operation, a user may carry a utility locator while moving through all or most of the locate operation while positioning it just above the ground.
Most existing utility locator devices are human supported and require a user to perform the inconvenient task of holding the locator still and upright above the ground for lengthy periods of time while performing a locate operation. Other locators may self-stand through attachments and/or other mechanisms that are physically large and/or obtrusive to the user and which may hinder easy use of the locator. Moreover, existing support devices and mechanisms are typically unwieldly to carry separately from the locator. Furthermore, currently known support devices and mechanisms configured for detachability and non-obtrusiveness are typically limited in use to locators having physically small antenna nodes. Such support devices and mechanisms fail to function at all on some locators, or function obtrusively and/or difficultly on locators having large antenna nodes. Existing support devices are often unnecessarily bulky, adding to weight and overall unwieldiness of their associated locators.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to address the above-described as well as other problems related to utility locators and locate operations.